Dr. Annie Ó Breacháin
I am an Assistant Professor in Drama Education within the School of Arts Education and Movement at the DCU Institute of Education.
My research and teaching are grounded in relational pedagogy informed by my doctoral research (University of Exeter) which interrogated the complexities of the child-teacher relationship in upper primary school contexts through a phenomenological lens. My master’s research (Trinity College Dublin) examined drama as a framework for curriculum integration in early years contexts. My background as a primary school teacher, combined with my time as an in-service advisor with Oide (formerly PDST), remains the foundation of my professional perspective. These experiences continue to inform my interest in the practice of teaching.
I served as chairperson of the Association for Drama in Education in Ireland (ADEI) from 2017 to 2021 and continue to serve on the ADEI committee for curriculum matters. In April 2021, I joined the Board of Directors at The Ark, Ireland’s dedicated cultural centre for children, where I continue to serve and chair the research working group
Research Interests
My research interests include relational pedagogy, embodiment, the child-teacher relationship, the practice of teaching, untranslatable words, Drama-in-Education, storytelling and curricular integration using Mantle of the Expert. I am also interested in phenomenological inquiry, research with children and generating and analysing visual and embodied research data.
Teaching Interests
I am passionate about the central role of the teacher to create high quality drama experiences for children. I teach drama modules on undergraduate, postgraduate and specialist programmes in the Institute of Education, DCU. I work closely with The Ark, a dedicated cultural centre for children, both on the MA in Arts Education practice and on the final year B.Ed. specialism module, 'Leadership in Drama Education'. I am interested in the practice of teaching and worked with colleagues in Marino Institute of Education on developing modules to explore how its complexity can be taught to novices and how it can be assessed using . I love opportunities to learn about assessment techniques and try to employ modes of assessment that are fair, creative and dialogic. Cé gur Béarla mo chéad teanga, is í an Ghaeilge teanga mo chroí agus déanaim iarracht í a fhuáil tríd mo chuid múinteoireachta .
CV
External Positions
- Board member, The Ark, Cultural Centre for Children15/04/2021 – Ongoing